Mozes David van der Stam

Helena Roza van Geldere was a daughter of Barend van Geldere and Sara Schielaar. She was born on 8 May 1902 in Rotterdam. Helena was the youngest of the three children who were born in this family: the eldest however, Sophia Roelofina died already at the age of 3 years on 25 April 1901. Her sister Elizabeth, who was born in 1900, married Jacob Meijers but both were murdered in Auschwitz on 15 Dece…

In addition, a Jokos file (number 31065) on this family is at the Amsterdam Municipal Archive. Access is subject to authorization from the Stichting Joods Maatschappelijk Werk.The Jokos file reveals that a claim was lodged for compensation for valuables surrendered to the Lippmann-Rosenthal looting bank (L-claim, number 11462/13870).

The period from 28 August to 12 December 1942 was known as the so-called Cosel period. Deportation trains  made a stopover at the freight station of Cosel, located 80 km west of Auschwitz. During that stop, boys and men who were considered fit for work by the Germans, were usually forcibly separated from their families and taken off the train and put to work in the surrounding labor camps of Upper…